That Time I Ate A Pigeon

It was just like any other Tuesday night. Except Sebastien Riffault was in town and I ate pigeon.

The place? Alma, a great little restaurant downtown that I’ve been wanting to check out for a while. The wine? Sebastien’s fantastically unique Sancerre. The food? Four delicious courses, including this Santa Barbara pigeon, which was slaughtered that morning. It was flavorful and cooked perfectly. But, it was still a pigeon. I think I just lived in New York City for too damn long to be able to eat a pigeon. Luckily, my friend Zak was sitting next to me and finished off the rest of my portion, down to the bone.

The Men & Their Horses

Before setting out on our France adventure, I don’t think Christina or I had any idea how many horses there would be in our future. Almost every winemaker we met had at least 2. Other than their obvious majestic beauty and wise soulful eyes (I’m partial and from Kentucky), the winemakers keep them around as “farm hands.” And companions, of course, but they represent the return to a larger movement championing hand harvesting and non-machine use in the vineyard. It takes a lot more time and can be grueling work, but all of these men feel it is vital to the health of their land and their vines. And to the excellence of their wines.

I wanted to share a little pictorial of, as the title clearly suggests, the men and their horses. So, let’s get to it. Our very first stop of the trip was to see Sebastien Riffault in Sury-en-Vaux a hop, skip and a jump from  Sancerre. We took a cart ride with one of his horses, Ophelie, out to the vineyards. What a lovely, albeit brisk, way to spend a morning and see the land!

Our next horse experience, and perhaps the most amazing one, was with Olivier Cousin in the very small town of Martigné-Briand outside of Saumur. If it’s any indication of the epic-ness that was our Cousin experience-  the first night we shared with the Cousin clan ended with midnight horse rides through town to the cellar where we tasted all the new ferments, among other things. Did I mention Olivier’s son played the accordion while doing all of this? Yes- that happened.

Olivier with Kiki (right) and Romeo, my prince (left).

The next afternoon, I got to ride Romeo again bareback through Olivier’s old vine carignan vineyard. Myself, Christina and Olivier’s wonderful American apprentice Clare each had a horse and trotted side by side within the rows of vines. Bareback! On horses! Through the vineyard! The cool factor was almost making my heart explode.

Note from Christina:  What Whitney didn’t tell you is that her beloved Romeo, scared by the ‘cellar dog’, bucked her right off the horse.  I was right behind so saw her go flying.  Scary at first, but now quite funny…in a dark way.

As amazing as it all was, we had to get in our little Renault Clio and drive 9 (!) hours south to Roussillon for our final visits.

This is where Nina and the plough come in.

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The Beurre of My Dreams

I’ll get to all the wine soon, but I just HAVE to share with you the amazing butter I had while in Sancerre. We were lucky enough to be invited over for dinner to the home of young winemaker Sebastien Riffault (he was chef for the night!). In addition to tasting his great sauvignon blanc and a decadent tartiflette, he shared some delicious butter and bread to snack.

These beauties are from Le Beurre Bordier aka The Butter Geniuses. The butter hails from Brittany in the north of France and is artfully crafted by Jean-Yves Bordier. This was, hands down, the best butter I have ever had. Ever. The yuzu was my personal favorite, although they were all delicious. You know something is special when it inspires heated conversation over its many possible uses. I think the yuzu would be amazing in a fruit pie or tart crust, the seaweed melted over grilled fish, the salted on- well- just about anything.

More info on the wines to follow, but Sebastien is making a great skin contact Sancerre (on the right). It was my favorite of the 3. And in a tip of the hat to the recently departed Marcel Lapierre, I drank from his tasting glass all night. He was a dear friend of Sebastien’s and the Riffault family and a extremely well respected Beaujolais master and natural wine pioneer.

I didn’t have my camera that night, so Soren filled in as photographer. Merci Didier! I used a little Rollip effects action to add some “nostalgia” as well as some typography…for educational purposes.